Percutaneous angioplasty for treatment of renovascular hypertension.

In this study, 10 patients with renovascular hypertension were treated with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). The obstructive lesion was atherosclerotic in four cases, fibrodysplastic in five, and mixed in one. Stenosis was bilateral in two patients. Before PTA, all patients had sustained hypertension, in nine despite medication. Immediately after PTA, hypertension was cured (BP less than or equal to 140/90 mmHg without medication) in six patients, and improved (either a BP less than or equal to 140/90 or a decrease in diastolic BP greater than 15 mmHg, with equal or less medication) in three patients. The one failure occurred in the only patient in which PTA did not achieve a complete dilatation of the stenosed artery. The overall success rate was 90 per cent after a mean follow-up of 17.5 months.